Sonstige
Bicyclists are minimally or unprotected road users. Their vulnerability results in a high injury risk despite their relatively low own speed. However, the actual injury situation of bicyclists has not been investigated very well so far. The purpose of this study was to analyze the actual injury situation of bicyclists in Germany to create a basis for effective preventive measures. Technical and medical data were prospectively collected shortly after the accident at the accident scenes and medical institutions providing care for the injured. Data of injured bicyclists from 1985 to 2003 were analyzed for the following parameters: collision opponent, collision type, collision speed (km/h), Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), Maximum AIS (MAIS), incidence of polytrauma (Injury Severity Score >16), incidence of death (death before end of first hospital stay). 4,264 injured bicyclists were included. 55% were male and 45% female. The age was grouped to preschool age in 0.9%, 6 to 12 years in 10.8%, 13 to 17 years in 10.4%, 18 to 64 years in 64.7%, and over 64 years in 13.2%. The MAIS was 1 in 78.8%, 2 in 17.0%, 3 in 3.0%, 4 in 0.6%, 5 in 0.4%, and 6 in 0.2%. The incidence of polytrauma was 0.9%, and the incidence of death was 0.5%. The incidence of injuries to different body regions was as follows: head, 47.8%; neck, 5.2%, thorax, 21%; upper extremities, 46.3%; abdomen, 5.8%; pelvis, 11.5%, lower extremities, 62.1%. The accident location was urban in 95.2%, and rural in 4.8%. The accidents happened during daylight in 82.4%, during night in 12.2%, and during dawn/dusk in 5.3%. The road situation was as follows: straight, 27.3%; bend, 3.0%; junction, 32.0%; crossing, 26.4%; gate, 5.9%; others, 5.4%. The collision opponents were cars in 65.8%, trucks in 7.2%, bicycles in 7.4%, standing objects in 8.8%, multiple objects in 4.3%, and others in 6.5%. The collision speed was grouped <31 in 77.9%, 31-50 in 4.9%, 51-70 in 3.7%, and >70 in 1.5%. The helmet use rate was 1.5%. 68% of the registered head injuries were located in the effective helmet protection area. In bicyclists, head and extremities are at high risk for injuries. The helmet use rate is unsatisfactorily low. Remarkably, two thirds of the head injuries could have been prevented by helmets. Accidents are concentrated to crossings, junctions and gates. A significant lower mean injury severity was observed in victims using separate bicycle lanes. These results do strongly support the extension or addition of bicycle lanes and their consequent use. However, the lanes are frequently interrupted at crossings and junctions. This emphasizes also the important endangering of bicyclists coming from crossings, junctions and gates, i.e. all situations in which contact of bicyclists to motorized vehicles is possible. Redesigning junctions and bicycle traffic lanes to minimize the possibility of this dangerous contact would be preventive measures. A more consequent helmet use and use and an extension of bicycle paths for a better separation of bicyclists and motorized vehicle would be simple but very effective preventive measures.
Rear-end collisions are the most frequent same and opposite-direction crashes. Common causes include momentary inattention, inadequate speed or inadequate distance. While most rear-end collisions in urban traffic only result in vehicle damage or slight injuries, rear-end collisions outside built-up areas or on motorways usually cause fatal or serious injuries. Driver assistance systems that detect dangerous situations in the longitudinal vehicle direction are therefore an essential safety plus. In view of this, for ADAC, systems that alert drivers to dangerous situations and initiate autonomous braking complement ESC as one of the most important active safety features in modern vehicles. The aim of ADAC is to provide consumers with technical advice and competent information about the systems available on the market. Reliable comparative tests that are based on standardised test criteria may provide motorists with important information and help them make a buying decision. In addition, they raise consumer awareness of the systems and speed up their market penetration. The assessment must focus on as many aspects of effectiveness as possible and include not only autonomous braking but also collision warning and autonomous brake assist. The work of the ADAC accident research is the development of the testing scenarios with direct link to accident situations and the identification of useful test criteria for testing.
Small overlap frontal crashes are defined by a damage pattern with most of the vehicle deformation concentrated outboard of the main longitudinal structures. These crashes are prominent among frontal crashes resulting in serious and fatal injuries, even among vehicles that perform well in regulatory and consumer information crash tests. One of the critical aspects of understanding these crashes is knowing the crash speeds that cause the types of damage associated with serious injuries. Laboratory crash tests were conducted using 12 vehicles in three small overlap test conditions: pole, vehicle-to-vehicle collinear, and vehicle-to-vehicle oblique (15-degree striking angle). Field reconstruction techniques were used to estimate the delta V for each vehicle, and these results were compared with actual delta V values based on vehicle accelerometer data. Estimated delta Vs were 50% lower than actual values. Velocity change estimates for small overlap frontal crashes in databases such as NASS-CDS significantly underestimate actual values.
Impact severity is a fundamental measure for all in-depth crash investigation projects. One methodology used in the UK is based on the US Calspan software package CRASH3. The UK- in-depth crash investigation studies routinely use AiDamage3 a software package which is based on an updated version of the original CRASH3 algorithm, including enhancements to the vehicle stiffness coefficients. Real world accident-damaged vehicles are measured and their crush is correlated with a library of stiffness coefficients. These measurements are then used, along with other parameters, to calculate the crash energy and equivalent changes of velocity of the vehicles (delta-v), which is a measure of the impact severity. UK in-depth accident studies routinely validate the crash severity methodologies applied as the vehicle fleet changes. This is achieved by analysing crash test data and using the appropriate residual crush damage and other inputs to AiDamage3 and checking the program- outputs with the known crash severity parameters. This procedure checks, at least in part, the default stiffness values in the data libraries and the reconstruction methods used.
The "Seven Steps Method" is an analysis and classification system, which describes the human participation factors and their causes in the temporal sequence (from the perceptibility to concrete action errors) taking into consideration the logical sequence of individual basic functions. By means of the "seven steps" it is possible to describe the relevant human causes of accidents from persons involved in the accident in an economic way with a sufficient degree of exactitude, because the causes can be further differentiated in their value (e.g. diversion as external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings) and their sub values (e.g. external diversion with regard to impact due to surroundings in the shape of a "capture" of the perception by a prominent object of the traffic environment). Theoretically it is possible that one or more causing moments can be assigned to a person involved in an accident in each of the "seven steps"; however it is also possible to sufficiently clarify the cause in only one level (examples for this are described). In the practice of accident investigation at the site of the accident, the sequence chart is also relevant. With its assistance the questioning of the people involved in an accident can be accomplished in a structured way by assigning a set of questions to each step.
Since 2008, the authors inspected fatal traffic accidents on the spot every year, with the cooperation of Toyota police station in Aichi pref. In the jurisdiction, numbers of fatal accidents were 18 in 2008, 12 in 2009, 14 accidents in 2010, and 16 in 2011. We here report the results of our analysis of information obtained by detailed inspection for those that occurred from 2008 to 2010. We focused on vehicle-to-pedestrian accidents, which accounted for about 45% of all accidents in 2008. Because many accidents occurred on residential roads not far from pedestrians" homes, it was revealed that the decrease of the collision speed by traffic calming such as humps and zone speed management, was highly effective. On the other hand, pedestrian detection technologies seemed to be also effective as a countermeasure on vehicle side. Every pedestrian position against a vehicle was clarified and TTC (Time to Collision) was calculated provisionally. Pedestrian accidents in intersections were also examined. Among the intersection pedestrian accidents within the jurisdiction, compared with the national average in Japan, the ratio of intersections without a signal and the ratio without a pedestrian crossing were high. According to the comparison of the Japanese traffic accident patterns between 2001 and 2008, pedestrian accidents during turning right and turning left did not decrease much. For elderly drivers, these accidents occurred very often. Finally, single vehicle accidents were analysed with the accident pattern analysis methods used above. There were high numbers of single vehicle accidents against object on single roads. Although fatal accidents against guardrails decreased, the numbers of fatal accidents against a utility pole and a sign pole were nearly constant. As for the impact with narrow width objects such as utility poles, the fatality rate was very high, and countermeasures of both road infrastructure and vehicles seem to be effective.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and accuracy of Event Data Recorders (EDRs). The analysis was based on J-NCAP crash tests from 2006"2007, with the corresponding EDR datasets. The pre-crash velocity, maximum delta-V and delta-V versus time history data recorded in the EDRs were compared with the reliable crash test data. The difference between the EDR pre-crash velocity and the laboratory test speed was less than 4 percent. In contrast, in several cases the maximum delta-V and delta-V versus time history data obtained from the EDRs showed uncertainty of measurement in comparisons with the reliable delta-V data. The difference in maximum delta-V in these comparisons was more than 5 percent in 10 of 14 tests and more than 10 percent in 4 of 14 tests. The EDRs underestimated the maximum delta-V in almost all tests. It was also concluded that the calculated acceleration from the EDR delta-V versus time history data showed good agreement with the instrumented accelerometer signal during the collision in almost all tests.
S. RINKE referiert über das Infrastrukturplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz. Es trat am 17.12.2006 in Kraft und hat einheitlich für die gesamte Bundesrepublik Deutschland ein vereinfachtes Planungsrecht für Projekte im Bereich von Bundesfernstraßen, Eisenbahn-Infrastrukturanlagen, Bundeswasserstraßen, Flughäfen, Strom- und Gasversorgungsleitungen geschaffen. Das nunmehrige rechtliche Planungsinstrumentarium soll es ermöglichen, dass die Zulassungsverfahren eine Beschleunigung um bis zu 21/2 Jahre erfahren. Der Referent erläutert die wichtigsten Änderungen durch dieses Gesetz, würdigt die Rollen der beteiligten gesetzgebenden Organe und gibt einen Ausblick auf die Ergebnisse einer Bund-Länder-Arbeitsgruppe zur Angleichung der Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetze von Bund und Ländern an dieses Gesetz. Auch KERN beschäftigt sich mit der Tatsache, dass Zulassungsverfahren für Infrastrukturvorhaben und etwaige mit der Zulassungsentscheidung verbundene gerichtliche Verfahren oft unangemessen lange dauern. Dies gilt insbesondere für den Verkehrsbereich. Er erläutert in seinem Referat die Tendenzen zur weiteren Planungsbeschleunigung, wobei er auch von seinen Erfahrungen über die Entwicklung dieses Bereiches während der letzten beiden Jahrzehnte berichtet, sowohl auf Bundesebene als auch in einzelnen Bundesländern. Das Ende 2006 in Kraft getretene Infrastrukturplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetz überlässt es bewusst den Landesgesetzgebern, zahlreiche offene Regelungen zu füllen , in dem Gesetz sind damit die entsprechenden Vorschläge des Bundesrates berücksichtigt worden. Abschließend stellt der Autor weitere Überlegungen zu einer möglichen Planungsbeschleunigung vor und endet mit einem kritischen Ausblick. KERN geht davon aus, dass die neuesten Beschleunigungsvorschläge den zeitlichen Ablauf von Zulassungsverfahren weiter deutlich straffen werden. G. GEYER (Vortrag durch MAß) referiert im um-fangreichsten Beitrag des Forschungsseminares über "50 Jahre Länderfachausschuss Straßenbaurecht " 50 Jahre gelebter Förderalismus in der Auftragsverwaltung für Bundesfernstraßen". Der Länderfachausschuss Straßenbaurecht ist ein Ländergremium, in dem juristische Vertreter der Straßenbauverwaltungen der Länder und des Bundesverkehrsministeriums in Fragen des Straßenbaurechts unter dem Blick der Bundesauftragsverwaltung mit dem Ziel einheitlicher Lösungen bis zu seiner Auflösung zum 1. Januar 2005 eng zusammengearbeitet haben. Anhand historischer Dokumente gibt der Referent Einblicke in die zurückliegende Arbeit des Ausschusses seit seiner offiziellen Gründung im Mai 1957. Über seine Entstehungsgeschichte, seine Aufgaben und Tätigkeiten und seine Organisation hinaus gibt der Autor verfassungsrechtliche Bewertungen von Regelungen und der Zulässigkeit von allgemeinen Weisungen und beleuchtet die künftige Arbeit der Nachfolgeinstitution des Länderfachausschusses, der "Dienstbesprechung Straßenbaurecht" unter der Leitung eines Vertreters des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung, deren Schwerpunkt er mit "Europa und kein Ende" überschreibt. Gegenstand des Beitrages von Ch. HEITSCH zur Situation der Fernstraßenplanung nach der Föderalismusreform ist deren Auswirkungen auf die Rechtsgebiete, die für die Planung der Bundesfernstraßen bedeutsam sind. Neben dem Fernstraßenrecht zählen dazu auch das Verwaltungsverfahrensrecht, das Naturschutz- und das Raumordnungsrecht. Der Autor weist bereits einleitend auf das Paradoxon der Föderalismusreform hin, dass straßenrechtliche Gesetzgebungskompetenzen des Bundes weiterhin der Erforderlichkeitsklausel des durch die Föderalismusreform geänderten Artikels 72 des Grundgesetzes unterliegen , diese Klausel wird vom Bundesverfassungsgericht äußerst restriktiv ausgelegt. Am Beispiel des Infrastrukturplanungsbeschleunigungsgesetzes macht der Verfasser deutlich, welche Konsequenzen die fortdauernde Bindung der fernstraßenrechtlichen Gesetzgebungskompetenzen an die Erforderlichkeitsklausel haben könnte. HEITSCH stellt schwerpunktmäßig die unterschiedlichen Gesetzgebungszuständigkeiten in den einzelnen Bereichen dar und erläutert die Probleme, die sich aus konkurrierenden Kompetenzen zur Gesetzgebung ergeben.
HORN stellt in ihrem Eingangsreferat den "Neuen Bundesverkehrswegeplan und die SUP in der Verkehrswegeplanung" vor. Das zentrale Element des in der Regel auf 10 bis 15 Jahre angelegten Plans ist die aus europäischen Vorgaben abgeleitete Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung. Diese erfordert bei der Erstellung des Bundesverkehrswegeplans einen kontinuierlichen Kommunikationsprozess. Zugleich betonte HORN die starke Unterfinanzierung des aktuellen Plans. Der Erhaltung der vorhandenen Verkehrsinfrastruktur komme in den Bereichen Straße, Schiene und Wasser der Vorrang vor Neubauten zu. FEHLING plädiert in seinem Beitrag "Die Straße im Kontext des öffentlichen Personennahverkehrs" für eine nahverkehrsfreundliche Planung und Gestaltung des Straßenraums. Die Planungen verschiedener Verkehrsträger und Planungsebenen müssten aufeinander aber auch mit straßenverkehrsrechtlichen Anordnungen abgestimmt werden. Die entsprechende Koordination sei allerdings verbesserungsbedürftig. Namentlich die Vernetzung der Nahverkehrsplanung mit anderen Planungsebenen müsse ausgebaut werden. KUGELE berichtet in seinem Beitrag "Selbstfinanzierte Straßen" für eine längerfristige Verlässlichkeit der Verkehrsfinanzierung. Gegenwärtig fließe nur etwa die Hälfte der Abgaben aus dem Verkehr dem Gesamtverkehrssystem auch wieder zu. Diese Mittel müssten gesteigert und längerfristig für den Verkehr verfügbar gemacht werden, etwa durch längerfristige Leistungs- und Finanzierungsvereinbarungen oder durch Sondervermögen. Der abschließende Beitrag "Das neue Vergaberecht" von SIEGEL behandelt drei neue EU-Vergaberichtlinien, die am 17.04.2014 in Kraft getreten und nun binnen zweier Jahre umzusetzen sind. Nach dem neuen Recht können künftig ökologische und soziale Kriterien verstärkt eine Rolle bei der Vergabe von öffentlichen Aufträgen spielen. Diese neuen Richtlinien vergrößern indes die Nachweispflichten und den bürokratischen Aufwand. Neben das Kriterium des "wirtschaftlich günstigsten Angebots" zählt zudem nunmehr auch das beste Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis.
The incidence and treatment of sternal fractures among traffic accidents are of increasing importance to ensure best possible outcomes. Analysis of technical indicators of the collision, preclinical and clinical data of patients with sterna fractures from 1985-2004 among 42,055 injured patients were assessed by an Accident Research Unit. Two time groups were categorized: 1985-1994 (A) vs. 1995-2004 (B). 267/42,055 patients (0.64%) suffered a sterna fracture. Regarding the vehicle type, the majority occurred after car accidents in 0.81% (251/31,183 pts), followed by 0.19% (5/2,633pts) driving motorbike, and 0.11% (4/3,258pts) driving a truck. 91% wore a safety belt. Only 13% of all passengers suffering a sternal fracture had an airbag on board (33/255 car/trucks), with an airbag malfunction in 18%. The steering column was deformed in 39%, the steering wheel in 36%. Cars in the recent years were significantly older (7.67-±5 years (B) vs. 5.88-±5 years (A), p=0.003). Cervical spine injuries are frequent (23% vs. 22%), followed by multiple rib fractures (14% vs. 12%) and lung injuries (12% vs. 11%). We found 9/146 (6%) and 3/121 patients (3%) with heart contusion among the 267 sternal fractures. MAIS was 2.56-±1.3 vs. 2.62-±1.3 (A vs. B, p=0.349). 18% of patients were polytraumatized, with 11.2% dying at the scene, 2.3% in the hospital. Sternal fractures occur most often in old cars to seat-belted drivers often without any airbag. Severe multiple rib fractures and lung contusion are concomitant injuries in more than 10% each indicating the severity of the crash. Over a twentyyear period, the injury severity encountered was not different with 18% polytrauma patients suffering sternal fractures.
The main focus of the benefit estimation of advanced safety systems with a warning interface by simulation is on the driver. The driver is the only link between the algorithm of the safety system and the vehicle, which makes the setup of a driver model for such simulations very important. This paper describes an approach for the use of a statistical driver model in simulation. It also gives an outlook on further work on this topic. The build-up process of the model suffices with a distribution of reaction times and a distribution of reaction intensities. Both were combined in different scenarios for every driver. Each scenario has then a specific probability to occur. To use the statistical driver model, every accident scene has to be simulated with each driver scenario (combinations of reaction times and intensities). The results of the simulations are then combined regarding the probabilities to occur, which leads to an overall estimated benefit of the specific system. The model works with one or more equipped participants and delivers a range for the benefit of advanced safety systems with warning interfaces.
In Germany, in-depth accident investigations are carried out in the Hannover area since 1973. In 1999 a second region was added with surveys in Dresden and the surrounding area. Internationally, the acronym GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) is commonly used for these surveys. Compared to many other countries, the sample sizes of the GIDAS surveys are much larger. The goal is to collect 1.000 accidents involving personal injuries per year and region. Data collection takes place by using a sampling procedure, which can be interpreted as a two-stage process with time intervals as primary units and accidents as secondary units. An important question is, to what extend these samples are representative for the target population from which they are drawn. Analyses show, for example, that accidents with persons killed or seriously injured are overrepresented in the samples compared to accidents with slightly injured persons. This means, that these data are subject to biases due to uncontrolled variation of sample inclusion probability. Therefore, appropriate weighting and expansion methods have to be applied in order to adjust or correct for these biases. The contribution describes the statistical and methodological principles underlying the GIDAS surveys with respect to sampling procedure, data collection and expansion. In addition, some suggestions regarding potential improvements of study design are made from a methodological point of view.
The bicyclist accidents were analyzed to get better understanding of the occurrences and frequency of the accidents, injury distributions, as well as correlation of injury severity/outcomes with engineering and human factors in two different countries of China and Germany. The accident cases that occurred from 2001 to 2006 were collected from IVAC database in Changsha and GIDAS database in Hannover. Based on specified sampling criteria, 1,570 bicyclist cases were selected from IVAC database in Changsha, and 1806 cases were collected from Hannover, documented in GIDAS database. Statistical analyses were carried out by using these selected data. The results from the statistical analysis are presented and discussed in this study.
The Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA), the Japanese Automobile Research Institute (JARI) and the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) are co-operating in the International Harmonized Research Activities on Intelligent Transportation Systems (IHRA-ITS). Under this umbrella a joint study was conducted. The overall objective of this study was to contribute to the definition and validation of a "battery of tools" which enables a prediction and an assessment of changes in driver workload due to the use of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) while driving. In this sense \"validation\" means to produce empirical evidence from which it can be concluded that these methods reliably discriminate between IVIS which differ in terms of relevant features of the HMI-design. Additionally these methods should also be sensitive to the task demands imposed on the driver by the traffic situation and their interactions with HMI-design. To achieve these goals experimental validation studies (on-road and in the simulator) were performed in Sweden, Germany and Japan. As a common element these studies focused on the secondary task methodology as an approach to the study of driver workload. In a joint German-Swedish on-road study the Peripheral Detection Task (PDT) was assessed with respect to its sensitivity to the complexity of traffic situations and effects of different types of navigation systems. Results show that the PDT performance of both the German and the Swedish subjects reflects the task demands of the traffic situations better than those of the IVIS. However, alternative explanations are possible which will be examined by further analyses. Results of this study are supplemented by the Japanese study where informational demands induced by various traffic situations were analysed by using a simple arithmetic task as a secondary task. Results of this study show that relatively large task demands can be expected even from simple traffic situations.
Angesprochen wurden aktuelle Entwicklungen beim Neubau und neue Entwicklungen bei Instandsetzungen und Verstärkungen. Eingegangen wird zu Beginn auf den Bestand an Brücken im Bundesfernstraßenbereich und auf die Entwicklung der Stahlpreise zwischen 2004 und 2008 mit einer sprunghaften Verdoppelung im August 2008 gegenüber den Jahren davor. Anschließend wird der Neubau von Stahlbrücken beleuchtet, auch mit Angabe der Möglichkeiten des Bundesministeriums fuer Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung (BMVBS) zur Förderung technischer Weiterentwicklungen und Innovationen. Aktuelle Entwicklungen bei Stahlverbundbrücken sind einteilige Überbauquerschnitte, VFT-Träger für Überführungen, luftdicht verschweisste Kästen, Hohlkästen mit Wellstahlträgern und Stahlrohrfachwerke. Alle diese Themen werden mit Beispielen unterlegt dargestellt. Neue Entwicklungen bei Instandsetzungen und Verstärkungen betreffen die verschiedenen Arten der Verstärkung von orthotropen Platten durch Aufkleben von Stahlplatten, Aufbringen einer Sandwichplatte (Sandwich-Plate-System (SPS)), Aufbetonieren einer dünnen Schicht aus ultrahochfestem Beton und Aufbringen eines steiferen Fahnbahnbelags.
The data situation for quantifying the proportion of accidents avoided by the introduction of active safety systems is incomplete, since there is generally no data available on the accidents avoided by the technology in question. In this paper, a split-register approach is suggested and compared with the classical case-control approach known from epidemiologic applications. Provided a set of assumptions hold, which can reasonably be made in such data situations, the split register approach allows inferences on the population accident risk. For both approaches the benefits of basing the analysis on the results of a logistic regression to adjust for confounding factors are outlined. The biasing effects of violating key assumptions are discussed and the split-register approach is demonstrated using the example of the active safety system ESP with data from the German in-depth accident study GIDAS.
To elucidate the risk of pedestrians, bicycle and motorbike users, data of two accident research units from 1999 to 2014 were analysed in regard to demographic data, collision details, preclinical and clinical data using SPSS. 14.295 injured vulnerable road users were included. 92 out of 3610 pedestrians ("P", 2.5%), 90 out of 8307 bicyclists ("B", 1.1%) and 115 out of 4094 motorcycle users ("M", 2.8%) were diagnosed with spinal fractures. Thoracic fractures were most frequent ahead of lumbar and cervical fractures. Car collisions were most frequent mechanism (68, 62 and 36%). MAIS was 3.8, 2.8 and 3.2 for P, B and A with ISS 32, 16 and 23. AIS-head was 2.2, 1.3 and 1.5). Vulnerable road users are at significant risk for spine fractures. These are often associated with severe additional injuries, e.g. the head and a very high overall trauma severity (polytrauma).
Introduction: Spine injuries pose a considerable risk to life and quality of life. The total number of road deaths in developed countries has markedly decreased, e.g. in Germany from over 20000 in 1970 to less than 4000 in 2010, but little is known how this is reflected in the burden of spine fractures of motor vehicle users. In this study, we aimed to show the actual incidence of spine injuries among drivers and front passengers and elucidate possible dependencies between crash mechanisms and types of injuries.
This study aims to analyze spine injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Between 1985 and 2004 the Hannover accident research unit documented 18353 accidents. We identified 161 front passengers (0.53%) with cervical spine injuries, 84 (0.28%) with thoracic and 95 (0.31%) with lumbar injuries. Technical and medical data was reviewed. Patients" records were retrieved. X-rays were evaluated and fractures were classified according to the Magerl classification. 68% and 57% of thoracic and lumbar fractures occurred in accidents with multiple impacts. Delta-v was 50, 40 and 40 kph in passengers with cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, resp. Passengers with spinal fractures frequently showed numerous concomitant injuries, e.g. additional vertebral fractures. The influence of seat belts and airbags is discussed. Patient work-up has to include a thorough investigation for additional injuries.
With an ever rising human life expectancy the share of elderly people in society is constantly rising. This leads to the fact that at the same rate the share of people with age related diseases such as dementia and poor eyesight taking part in traffic will rise and therefore traffic accidents caused by this group of people due to the disease will play an ever greater role. This Situation will be among the future challenges of road safety work. At present this study displays specific characteristics of accidents caused by elderly car drivers (aged 65 or higher) based on the analysis of the German In-Depth Accident Study GIDAS. Herein almost 1000 elderly car drivers were identified as accident participants in the years 2008 to 2011. The focus of this study lies on identifying special types of accidents which are caused by elderly drivers and on characterizing these types with the information gathered on scene and by interviewing the participants. The main evidence analyzed is the knowledge about the accident locality, the trajectories of the participants as well as the reasons for the occurrence of the accidents. Furthermore personal information such as the personal condition before the accident and driving purposes is used to identify patterns of contributing circumstances for accidents caused by elderly traffic participants.